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So my Phenom II 955 finally died 6 months ago =( strapped for cash I replaced it with a G3285 on an Asus z97 paired with my 6970.
With Skylake here my upgrade path is diminishing.
Do I?
A) Keep the G3258 OC'd to 4GHz and wait,
B) Upgrade to an i5-4690K for $365 AUD
c) Upgrade to an i5-5675c for $420 AUD
D) Any other suggestions?

Typical usage is Borderlands2 (still haven't finished it yet) and Lightroom 6. Currently the CPU isn't holding me back too much. Games are certainly playable, although it sits on 90% utilization most of the time. Lightroom could use the extra cores also.

Thanks

Slinky wrote:

strapped for cash I replaced it with a G3285
...
Currently the CPU isn't holding me back too much.

Are you still strapped for cash? If so, I think you answered your own question -- stick with what you've got.

If you're not still in a cash crunch, then things get more interesting. I'd probably go for the 4690K if you've got the upgrade itch. A step behind the latest generally gives you better bang for the buck.

I would say go with the 4690K as well if you are not cash strapped.

I've never noticed Lightroom use multiple cores. I recommend doing what everyone above is saying.

Thanks.

I've never noticed Lightroom use multiple cores.

It only really taxes them during export processing. Scales well to 4 cores but not much past that. Usually I just start the processing and come back in an hour when it's all done.

I would say go with the 4690K as well if you are not cash strapped.

I have some room to move, just weighing in the options. $350-400 now on a cpu now (while parts are available), or put that towards a complete new system when I need it down the track.

The 4690K will last you quite awhile. Three more years at least. How much memory do you have? What kind of monitor?

Slinky wrote:

I have some room to move, just weighing in the options. $350-400 now on a cpu now (while parts are available), or put that towards a complete new system when I need it down the track.

Personally I'd stick with what you have and save that money for your next build-As long as it's not holding you back......................
Benefits of-better southbridge-M2 support...........
And if really lucky our cr@p AUS $ might improve by then-4690K was $270 when it came out and our $ was good..........................

Lightroom will take it's time- either way.

And my 2500k (4.4GHz) looks to be hanging on until it's second motherboard dies; first was a Z68 whose UEFI became inaccessible, now a Z77, and there's literally nothing on a newer platform that would be worth the price.

At worst, if you're interested in games that use the CPU more, that would be worth it; but for just one game that plays with what you have? Hard to recommend .

Slinky wrote:

[...] G3285 on an Asus z97 paired with my 6970.
Do I?
A) Keep the G3258 OC'd to 4GHz and wait,
B) Upgrade to an i5-4690K for $365 AUD
c) Upgrade to an i5-5675c for $420 AUD
D) Any other suggestions?

D) Ditch the obsolete 5 year old GPU.

Spend the cash on e.g.

• 4 GB GeForce GTX 960 $296 AUD
• 4 GB Radeon R9 380 $319 AUD
• 4 GB Radeon R9 380X, from $361 AUD

any of which will be supported with driver releases, perform better in games, and cost you less than those CPUs.

Plus, if you use the Develop module in Lightroom, Adobe suggests using a Radeon R9 or a GTX 760+/900 card.

Yep a new GPU would be a better upgrade now then a CPU.

Topinio, it's not recommended; it's required to use gpu acceleration. I just looked and found Lightoom isn't using my 750 ti for gpu acceleration (God damn it Adobe).

Thanks, that's good info.

FWIW, the helpx page only states "suggested" and "consider", not "required" and "you must be"

Suggested system requirements and graphics cards

• 1 GB of VRAM (Video RAM, or RAM on the video adapter). 2 GB of dedicated VRAM is suggested for large, high-resolution (such as 4K and 5K) monitors.
• OpenGL 3.3. If you're not sure if OpenGL 3.3 is fully supported by your card, contact the manufacturer.

Note: Use only one graphics card. Performance isn't enhanced with multiple cards.

Graphics cards produced in the last two years that meet the minimum system requirements above should work.

• For AMD cards, consider using the Radeon R9 series of cards, such as the R9 270 thru 290.
• For NVIDIA cards, consider using a card from the GeForce GTX 760+ line (760, 770, 780, ...) or from the GeForce GTX 900 series.
• For Intel cards, 4400 or later is required.

Unsupported graphics cards

Mac OS:

• NVIDIA GeForce 9400/9400M
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 120/GT 130
• NVIDIA GeForce 210
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT/GS
• NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
• NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
• NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800
• NVIDIA GeForce NVS 3100M
• Intel HD 3000/4000

Windows:

• AMD Radeon HD 5xxx to 8xxx Series graphics cards running driver versions 14.501.1003 and 14.502.1014

on which basis, I'd say you nailed it in the parentheses

Having played through Borderlands 2 and TPS many times using a G3258 OCed to 4.3GHz I can say you don't need to upgrade for those games as they will run fine on that CPU. Now if you want to get other new AAA games you may find that you need a new CPU. I know that I'm looking to upgrade (probably to a 4690K) due to games like The Witcher 3 that can use more threads.

So it comes down to what you plan to do over the next year with your system. If you want to get new games then upgrading to either Haswell or Broadwell CPU might make the most sense. There's some benefit to upgrading to Skylake but having to get a new MB and RAM would have it make less sense for you since you already have a Z97 platform. If you plan on playing the same games and more independent games then sticking with the G3258 and saving up money for an upgrade might be the best option.

GPU's not a bad shout, but the 6970 is more potent than people give it credit for. I wouldn't swap it out for anything less than a Hawaii (290, 390) or a GTX 970 otherwise you'd be throwing money at it to see only small performance improvements.

If I had to make a "feels about right" sort of guess, a 6970 feels about as good as a low-end pitcairn (R9 370, R9 270, HD7850)

Oh, I certainly give the HD 6970 plenty of credit, it's done fantastic for 5 years and still lets games be played at similar settings to the R7 370 like you say. But ... its future utility will be limited by being obsolete and unsupport in AMD's current and future drivers.

I'd see it as completely suitable for playing already-released games, but anyone with one who wants to play next year's games should know the driver optimizations required for new games won't exist for that card, so they could do worse than look at a new GPU (particularly if they have the upgrade itch and 400+ currency units to play with!)

A Radeon R9 380 or GeForce GTX 960 looks a good upgrade on HD 6970 to me, (that one data point shows) 50->83/81 FPS which isn't to be sniffed at. And a R9 380X 4 GB would do better than the 83 FPS from the R9 380 2 GB in the chart.

GTX 970 and R9 390 appear to be $450+ so I supposed them to be over budget, if not.

Actually, I looked back at the document Topinio I linked to. I'm going to uninstall afterburner and see if it is renabled. I think it is stupid Adobe is checking to see if RivaTuner is installed though.

How much memory do you have? What kind of monitor?

8GB and just a 1080 @ 60 24 inch. and an old 1440x900 on the side (in portrait) for monitoring diagnostics.

6970 is more potent than people give it credit for

Agreed. It is more than capable for my needs. Rarely is it pegged at max. Plus I don't mind dropping the settings every now and then if it gives me smoother game play.

Adobe suggests using a Radeon R9 or a GTX 760+/900 card.

Yeah, but the actual requirements are OpenGL 3.3 which covers many many GPU's. Unfortunately GPU acceleration only helps the FPS while in develop mode which was fine for me (although it is nice to have it a bit snappier). I was hoping it would help the export times, but unfortunately that's down to the CPU alone.
Sigh I s'pose it's fine waiting for the processing. I'll just go throw the ball for the puppies....


Thanks everyone for the advice. I think I'll just hold onto my G3258 (and 6970) for now. Who knows, by the time Zen finally comes out I might be ready to go back to the other side...

DrDominodog51 wrote:

Actually, I looked back at the document Topinio I linked to. I'm going to uninstall afterburner and see if it is renabled. I think it is stupid Adobe is checking to see if RivaTuner is installed though.

After 10 minutes of research I concluded this: In CS6/CC, only a few tasks are accelerated by GPU and some are actually slower than cpu only. I didn't bother to try and get GPU acceleration working after that.